Frederick Hess, a former Curry professor and current resident scholar and director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, created the rankings based on eight factors: a Google Scholar score; book points; the author’s highest-ranked book on Amazon; the number of times the scholar was quoted or mentioned in education press, blogs, newspapers and the Congressional Record; and finally on their Klout score, the number of times an individual is retweeted, mentioned, followed, listed and answered on Twitter.

The rankings “offer a useful, if imperfect, gauge of the public impact edu-scholars had in 2012, both due to short-term activity and longer-term contributions,” Hess writes on his Education Week blog, Straight Up. “The rubric reflects both a scholar’s body of academic work – encompassing books, articles and the degree to which these are cited – and their 2012 footprint on the public discourse.”

U.Va. had nine faculty members make the prestigious list, including Curry professor Carol Tomlinson, an expert on differentiated instruction, who rose to 20th in this year’s rankings. Former Curry dean David Breneman, Newton and Rita Meyers Professor in Economics of Education (ranked 54th); professor of education policy Sarah E. Turner (90th); and Michelle Young, professor in the Administration & Supervision program and director of the University Council for Educational Administration (113th), also made the list.